Cleaner, Greener, Safer, Smarter.

Welcome Back! It's Good To See You Again.

Transport Evolved believes in great content and no advertising. Help us stay that way with a monthly donation from just $1 per month.

For the price of a cup of coffee we'll keep you up-to-date on the latest news both here & on our video channel; with in-depth analysis on the stories that matter - all without the inevitable bias that paid content brings.

UK Order Books for Volkswagen e-Golf Open

Geek through and through, Mark has always loved technology. When he was younger he would find any and all ways to get access to computers, gadgets and the internet – even going as far as working around the internet block on his school’s computers. When they fixed that exploit, he found another.

Tags

This week Volkswagen has unveiled the Uk pricing of the much anticipated e-Golf along with opening the books for UK orders.

The e-Golf is priced at £25,845 after the £5000 UK Government plug-in grant has been taken into account. The e-Golf can be ordered from one of 24 Volkswagen EV specialist Retailers across the UK, with the first deliveries expected at the end of June. The e-Golf will sit alongside the other plug in Volkswagens, namely the e-Up! – which Nikki and Mark have on review this week – and the Golf GTE plug-in hybrid.

The car comes with a 26.5kWh battery pack that powers a 85kW electric motor. Together they produce 270 Nm of torque to give the car a 0 – 62mph time of 10.4 seconds, almost a whole second faster than the 1.6-litre turbo diesel version of the car. Each of these stats is a little ahead of its nearest rival the Nissan LEAF which has a 24kWh battery pack, a 80kW motor and a 0 – 62 time of around 11 seconds. To put this in context a fully loaded LEAF comes in at £25,490 although this can be reduced by £5000 if a buyer opts to rent the battery.

Will the e-Golf Tempt Long-Term VW Fans?

As with other European manufacturers the car uses the Combined Charging System (CCS) to keep the battery full of electrons. At home the car can be topped up with a 10A ‘domestic socket’ cable or charged with a dedicated charging station at 16A. These take 13 and eight hours respectively. No option for an upgraded on-board charger is offered.

The DC pins on the CCS socket allow the car to be rapid charged at up to 40kW allowing a 0 – 80% charge in 35 minutes in ideal conditions.

Like the Nissan LEAF when it was first launched the e-Golf only has one option for the potential buyer. That’s whether to upgrade the onboard heating system to use a heat pump for an additional £825. The heat pump will allow drivers to conserve range in the winter as it requires far less energy to generate heat than the standard heater. Volkswagen believe a 20% increase in range in winter is possible with the heat pump.

Should Nissan Be Worried About the e-Golf?

As with the e-Up! the e-Golf comes with various levels of regen which can be switched on the fly. From no regen at all allowing a driver to coast to a level that pretty much allows one-pedal driving and automatically switches on the brake lights.

Drivers of the e-Golf who want to conserve power can select between two additional driving profiles. ‘Eco’ reduces the peak power of the motor to 70kW which increases the 0 – 62 time to 12.1 seconds. It also limits the top speed to 74mph. ‘Eco+’ takes this a step further, reducing the motor power to 55kW and limiting the top speed to 56mph. Both of these modes alter the acceleration pedal mapping and adjust the heater/AC settings.

Full motor power in both of these modes can still be accessed using the car’s ‘kick-down’ mode by flooring the pedal.

With Only a 16A Charger Onboard, Will VW Lose Out to Cars with 32A or Higher Onboard Chargers?

Volkswagen have made sure to stuff the car full of modern technology and innovation. For example, it’s the first production VW to feature full LED headlights. The e-Golf also boasts:

A heated windscreen

Two zone air conditioning and heating

The Discover Navigation Pro system

featuring a 8 inch colour touch screen

DAB radio

64GB SSD

two SD card readers

all of this alongside the usual power monitoring, navigation and charging station display we are used to.

Rear-view camera

Park assist

Adaptive cruise control

Lane assist.

As with most over electric cars, the e-Golf has a tie-in smart phone app allowing users to check on the state of charging, start charging, activate the heating/cooling system. The app goes one step further than most though by letting the owner know if they left the lights on or any of the doors open along with where they parked the car on a map – possibly useful for finding your way back to the car in a strange city or town.

What do you think of the e-Golf? Is this a car you are interested in? Let us know below.